Daily Dawg Tags: Browns due for a win?

Spanning the virtual globe to bring you the latest news about the Cleveland Browns and the NFL – these are your Daily Dawg Tags for Thursday, Nov. 10.

Nine in a row to start the season.

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Twelve in a row dating back to 2015.

Twenty-eight of their last 32 dating back to 2014.

The Cleveland Browns have lost so much in the past two years that it is staggering when you at the actual numbers.

A loss tonight against the Baltimore Ravens and this will be the worst start to a season in franchise history, a fact that head coach Hue Jackson is aware of.

“This team has been through a lot, but they keep on swinging,” Jackson said. “Do we want to go out there and win the game? Yes, we are not going there just to show up. We are going there to win the game. It is a division game against a division opponent, a good football team who is leading the AFC North, and we have to go play well to do that. That is what we are looking forward to doing.”

Let’s kick off game day with a run through the NFL in today’s edition of the Daily Dawg Tags.

The Cleveland Browns have been a sheer disappointment heading into their lone nationally televised game of 2016. At 0-9, Cleveland hopes to upset the Baltimore Ravens in one of their last golden opportunities at a win.

The Cleveland Browns are one loss away from the worst start in the team’s 66-year history. The defense is a mess, the talent level is meager, the offense gained 28 yards in its last half of play, none of the team’s 14 draft picks is making a significant impact and the Browns’ quarterback position remains unsettled. The Browns have set a record with 12 losses in a row. And Cleveland is the first team since the Denver Broncos in 1964 to give up at least 25 points in its first nine games. Which leads to the question: Is Hue Jackson getting a pass?

The temptation is to say, “Let the Browns lose every game, pile up the draft picks.” Certainly the Browns were doomed to lose a lot of games this season. That was long before the new front office made the decision to have the youngest team in the NFL. But I understand the moaning from the beaten-down fan base.

With the passing of NFL Week 9, we’ve now reached the point of the season when every team has at least eight games tallied. With that span of grades and data in our system, here’s a look at the top performers at every position so far this season.

The initiative to fund a new football venue in San Diego was soundly defeated. Now the Chargers’ options are: Move to L.A., consider somewhere else, or try to somehow stay and make it work. None are appetizing.

Question for the 49ers management wizards who constructed this 1-7 team and are currently trying to figure out what to do/who to blame next: If you eventually decide that Chip Kelly isn’t your guy and set him up to be fired (or try to push him into quitting) by early-January, who in the world are you hiring next?

Four years ago, when the NFL announced plans to expand its slate of Thursday night games, many players greeted the announcement with concern and consternation. They understood the league’s desire to grow its television footprint but wondered if the proliferation of four-day turnarounds would place undue strain on already-aching bodies. As the Ravens prepared to host the Cleveland Browns this Thursday, however, they spoke of the short week as a mildly stressful fact of life, one of many in a sport built on the trade-off of pain for glory.

The NFL primetime game ratings have declined year-over-year in all but one matchup, and by double digits in more than half of them. That speaks to a problem larger than going head-to-head against Trump and Clinton in a debate. The causes are multi-varied, and we don’t have a full grasp on all the factors playing into why the NFL, finally, is not the one television product impervious to the decline in traditional television viewers.